Jump Start Your Morning with Milk + WIN a Fitbit Flex!

This year, I have been focusing on bringing BALANCE to our lives – this means eating better and exercising more, with a focus on being healthy and strong rather than losing weight. But that definitely means improving my diet. A cup of coffee does NOT a breakfast make! I recently learned that many nutrition experts recommend that we eat 25-30 grams of protein at every meal for best daily nutrition. However, the average American only eats 13 grams of protein at breakfast.[1] I don’t know how many grams of protein a cup of coffee has, but I know that it is no where NEAR what I should be eating! I typically eat most of my protein at dinner – which can leave me hungry mid-morning and lead to me hitting the candy bowl at work…not a good healthy habit!

It’s really important to power your mornings with a protein rich breakfast, and one of the best ways to do that is to include a cup of milk (in a recipe, in a glass, in a bowl) with your breakfast, and pair it with your favorite protein-rich breakfast foods like eggs or use it in a recipe like oatmeal or a smoothie. I LOVE a big breakfast, but I don’t have a ton of time in the morning to put something together, so milk is a great way to help me put together a satisfying breakfast! One 8 oz serving of milk has 8 grams of protein, so when paired with the right foods, a cup of milk can help you get to that goal!

I decided to try creating an easy, yummy breakfast that wouldn’t take me a long time to cook up but that was satisfied and protein-rich! Check out my ingredient list and how much protein each ingredient has:

1 cup of milk – 8 grams of protein

2 large eggs – 12 grams of protein

2 slices bacon – 6 grams of protein

1 cup spinach – .9 grams of protein

In case you were counting, that’s 26.9 grams of protein! AND this recipe is going to be so easy and absolutely satisfying…and here’s the fun part…only 1 pan! This is my take on a recipe rehab for Eggs Benedict – if this was a weekend recipe, I would make this with poached eggs, but since I’m looking for recipes that will help me start my workdays right, I stuck with scrambled. This is SO easy. You start with a whole wheat English muffin (pop in the toaster). Then, quickly brown up two lean pieces of bacon and put on top of the English muffin. Then, in the same pan, add the cup of spinach and saute until wilted (scrape up the bacon bits on the bottom of the pan for extra flavor). Once wilted, place on top of bacon, and crack 2 eggs into the pan and scramble, seasoning with salt and pepper. When done, top your spinach!

Looks yummy, huh! And it takes less than 15 minutes – perfect for my busy work day and I get over 26 grams of protein…thanks to the cup of milk that I added!

I’ve found that by eating a protein rich breakfast like the one I made here, including milk helps me stay full throughout the morning and gives me the energy I need to make it through and focus while at my job.

To celebrate establishing better habits, two VERY LUCKY Parent Palace readers are going to win a really cool prize to help you make your mornings even better – a Fitbit Flex (retail value $99.99)! There will be entries you can do every day so make sure to bookmark Parent Palace and come back to enter! Contest entrants are only eligible to win once per sweepstakes, per household as a part of a campaign sponsored by Influence Central and must reside in the United States.a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can jump start your mornings as well. Visit Milk Life to see how you can use milk to help you meet your 25-30 grams morning protein goal! What recipe would you incorporate milk into to help you get to 25 grams of protein for breakfast?

This looks like a great way to start of the day with a great breakfast. I love using milk in my oatmeal because I making so I can almost drink it. Yummy!! I will have to try your breakfast. Anything with bacon you can count me in. Thanks for the recipe and idea.